Publications

Sanctions Stick Even After Settlement

New York Law Journal

An order imposing sanctions catches the attention of litigants, sometimes even encouraging the parties to settle. When they do, the sanctioned party often will seek to have the sanctions award vacated as part of the settlement. Increasingly, judges are resistant to vacating sanctions orders. In this article, we discuss Southern District Judge Victor Marrero’s recent decision in Rogue Wave Software v. BTI Systems, which highlights the trend away from courts vacating sanctions orders just because the parties’ settlement agreement provides for it, and concludes that going forward, the more egregious the conduct leading to a sanctions order, the less likely it is that a court will vacate it.